| Electoral Reform Current Situation: The current system limits the participation of voters and creates unneeded obstacles for Independent and third party candidates to run for office. The two major parties dominate American politics due to these restrictive ballot access laws, along with the use of redistricting gimmicks and of course money. We also no longer have truly independent or investigative journalism and the internet and other media sources provide a news source for almost every unique perspective. NAIP Position: We support Electoral & ballot reform in America. We support motivating individuals to invest the time it requires to improve our government, to understand and debate the issues and to be impervious to the onslaught of bias media and marketing from the political extremes. NAIP Supports these actions: * campaign finance reform - Goal of 95% of campaign funds should come from the representative district - NAIP candidates will publicly communicate the % of campaign funds coming from with in and outside of the representative district * public funding for elections *safe and secure voting machines with a paper trail * the right to circulate initiatives, referendums & recall * extending voter registration dates (but not election day voting registration) * the counting of all votes including write-in votes * Government paid priority mail/ express mail for mailing soldiers overseas absentee ballots *instant runoff voting for local elections *national general election day holiday. *fair ballot access *full voting rights for U.S. Territories Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam) * full voting rights for U.S. Citizens that were born overseas to U.S. Citizens but did not live in the U.S. long enough to establish residency in any one U.S. State. Excellence in Government Current Situation: We can not blame government for being in-effective, only ourselves for tolerating poor government and doing nothing about it. We do not insist that we have the right information to evaluate and judge how an individual or government group is performing. If you have ever hired anyone to work for you, you know how important it is to invest the time to make the best decision possible. We are paying for our government to get things done, not to be in-effective and to spend our money on activities and actions whose main motivation is to weaken opposing political parties. NAIP Position: It is our responsibility to require that an active voting public have the information we need to make informed decisions. We invest our time when we make a major financial purchase; we must also invest that time in assuring we have the relevant facts about candidates and how our government is performing. NAIP Supports these Actions: • Require that at the beginning of each term, all legislative bodies agree on a specific number of activities that will be completed that term (6 to 10 for example). - For example, if the legislative body is balanced, then all three parties would provide their top two priorities to make up the top 6 for that term. • All government employees (elected and appointed) should be publicly measured on qualitative metrics that show how effective they have been serving in office or in their position. It is our money that is paying for each of our public employees. • Public disclosure of job performance reviews. We need to know how well they manage staff, work with colleagues, provide effective leadership and other job performance criteria (known as 360 degree performance reviews) • Public metrics showing how well the office or department manages spending verses budget. Annual accomplishments showing how they have improved services, reduced costs and met sustainability targets. - Annual events where officials and departments declare their annual goals and target performance metrics • Beyond campaign finance data, elected officials should report the number of inquires, responses and actions they address each year with improvements made year over year. Random surveys should be conducted of constituent’s satisfaction with the responses and actions. • Officials just put their names on a bill or legislation. We need to know the percentage each author contributed to completing this work. • More citizen oversight boards for government departments at all levels. Responsibility will be random, similar to jury duty. This will engage and educate citizens on how our government is working. The oversight boards will audit, rate and then report back to the public how well each government group has done in achieving yearly goals. Fair Trade Agreements, NOT Free Trade Agreements Current Situation: America needs to engage in and sign Fair trade agreements, not free trade agreements. America cannot continue to run up record trade deficits and flood our markets with cheap foreign goods. These free trade agreements contribute to the loss of American jobs by flooding the U.S. markets with cheap foreign goods, which leads to a decline of American manufacturing and the outsourcing of American jobs. Most of our current Free trade agreements are with countries that lack, or ignore any environmental, social and labor standards. America's current free trade agreements put us into a race straight to the bottom. We cannot continue to sell out the American worker and American companies by giving foreign companies and countries unfair trade advantages. NAIP Position: We must work to eliminate our record trade deficits and this won't happen until we rework our trade agreements and put pressure on other countries to follow through on their end of the bargain. We must end or renegotiate our participation in NAFTA, CAFTA and other free trade agreements. The NAIP calls for a return of American self-reliance and the rebuilding of American manufacturing. NAIP supports the following actions: - We encourage all Americans to buy MADE IN USA goods whenever possible - We support the creation of a U.S. Manufacturing strategy Outsourcing American Jobs, technology & companies We must defend the American Worker by ending the outsourcing of American jobs. America is losing jobs in all forms and sectors to outsourcing. Corporations continue to sell out the American people in order to find cheap labor in foreign markets like China, India, Mexico and the Philippines. Americans continue to lose jobs, while we are building the economies of countries who will challenge our superpower status in the future like China and India. Also, the neo-conservative planned opening up of the Middle East to "freedom" and "democracy" will first lead to more carrot sticks (free trade agreements) being offered to them, which in turn will lead to the loss of more American jobs to the region as U.S. Corporations will quickly flock to the region for the cheap labor. We must stop giving private contracting jobs in places like Iraq to U.S. Companies who outsource jobs or offshore their headquarters to avoid paying taxes. We must work to keep American companies and technology here. The outsourcing of America's technology and the offshoring of American companies is a recipe for disaster. We must keep our economic and technological advantages in the world, if we are to have any advantages at all. The outsourcing of America's technology puts America's very survival at stake. If America is to remain strong in the future, we must, as a nation, regain our self-reliance. We must work to bring good jobs to the American people in safe working conditions. We need to ensure that every American has access to a good public high school education and access to an affordable Higher Education. We must also work to shrink the wage gap between men and women by raising Women's wages up, not by declining the wages of men. We must greatly reduce the number of approved H1B and L1 visa's that allow U.S. Companies to hire foreign workers in America. This practice has devastated the remaining American tech workers sector after the initial devastation by outsourcing tech jobs overseas. Approving large numbers of foreign workers visa's has also led to a drop in wages for those American tech workers fortunate enough to keep their jobs. The current H1B cap discourages American students from pursuing higher education in computer science, math and engineering. The NAIP will oppose all efforts to raise the annual H1B cap. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. tech workers are unemployed or under employed. It is time that America once again relies on our own technology and our own tech workers and engineers. It is time to stand up for the American worker! Use of Military (Foreign Policy) America has the greatest military on earth. We must use our great military only when it is in our national interest. Our great men and woman are too important to be sent in harms way for political or corporate interests. We support our military as they bravely protect our freedoms and defending us from those who might want to do us harm. We would of course support going to war when it is necessary. We support some goodwill missions in times of large disasters around the world. We strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq which was sold to us with lies and misleading information and is part of a much larger neo- conservative agenda. The Bush Administration seized upon the people's fears after the attacks of September 11th. Seizing on these fears helped the Congress and the Administration strip away the rights of the American people quietly, in the name of security. An interventionist policy (the policy of the Bush & Obama Administration) will only result in more conflicts and more danger for America. We support a foreign policy that does not seek to mold the world into the image of America. We support a common sense stance on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a much smaller presence in the Middle East and Independence from Middle East oil. We will always support our troops even if we do not always support the strategic mission or the politicians that send them to battle. We fully support taking care of our Veterans through greatly increased Veterans benefits. We support a responsible exit strategy from Iraq. We do not support a permanent presence in Iraq. Secure the Homeland We need to secure our homeland and stop actual Terrorist threats toward the U.S. Our nuclear power plants, ports, borders, trains, and dams are not secure and the local and state authorities are not getting the funding they need or were promised. This is breaking state and local budgets and putting our citizens in danger. Our borders need to be secure with increased border agents and national guard troops if need be. The government must work to keep America safe, but we must always preserve our individual rights. We strongly oppose many provisions of the hastily passed patriot act, which infringes on individual rights and doesn't make America safer. Israeli/Palestinian Conflict We need a more common sense neutral stance on Israeli/Palestinian conflict. America can work with both sides at the peace table to find compromise over the holy sites, settlements and other conflicts. The United States should avoid getting too close to either side. Our traditional close intimate relationship Israel will endanger our national security. We cannot set foreign policy that is dictated by a select group within Israel (or any other nation) or is created for the benefit of Israel first. We can protect our long time friendship with Israel best, by tackling the division in a fair and reasoned way. We urge members to refer to President George Washington's farewell speech. In that speech, Pres. Washington warns us not to get too cozy with foreign nations foreign policy interests. America can remain the world's leader and a beacon of hope in the eyes of the world by staying engaged in the world and working with allies to solve world issues and regional conflicts, while still always holding our right to act alone if necessary. However, it is not America's mission to shape the rest of the world in our image. Undertaking a mission to "bring freedom, democracy and capitalism to every nation and people of the world" would result in a serious decline in American power and our standing would be dramatically lowered in the long run. An interventionist policy is a recipe for disaster (more war). We need elected officials who will question policies, big or small. That is part of their responsibility as public officials. They have failed to fulfill their duties in the past. Voices of protest have been silenced or sent out to the wilderness, left barking with no one to hear them. Energy Policy & Energy Independence Current Situation: America must achieve Energy independence through the reduction in our consumption of energy and to utilize more renewable energy sources. We must end our funding of terrorists and oppressive regimes by ending our consumption of their oil (America's drug of choice). NAIP Position: We must work to quickly phase in alternative renewable energy resources. Domestic Natural Gas, Wind and Solar power should be a top priority. We must begin manufacturing of U.S. made electric cars and other technology that will weed us off of oil, especially foreign oil. We have the technology to do this and it would add hundreds of thousands of green jobs into this new area of energy policy. Making America more energy efficient will make American goods more competitive on the global market. It will also make America much, much safer. America needs to have a fundamental cultural shift in the way we view energy. Energy must be viewed as a precious commodity, that is used sparingly and that we are constantly looking to reduce. From 6% to 10% of our energy use goes to power things we are not using (anything with an LED, phone chargers, the coffee pot, TV’s on hot standby…). The Government can influence and direct the national behaviors through incentives and marketing. Increased taxes and costs should only apply to those who do not reduce energy consumption. We support the change over to renewable energy resources for our Federal and State governments; this includes their facilities and vehicles. American auto makers in Detroit need to step up to the plate in regards to manufacturing hybrid and fuel efficient vehicles. Detroit has slipped well behind foreign auto makers in hybrid and renewable technologies. Nearly 100 years ago the Ford Model T achieved roughly 24 miles to the gallon. Here we are 100 years later in the age of technology and our vehicles are doing no better in regards to miles per gallon used. America must act immediately to embrace the many economically and environmentally sustainable proposals available. Cleaning up America and enforcing environmental laws can be costly at times. However, time and time again we have seen that it is much less costly to prevent environmental problems before they occur, then after they occur. We are concerned with Global Climate change. We must quickly work to cut vehicle emissions. When we get to the point when global climate change is too unbearable, it would take over 100 years for our proactive changes to start making a difference. Environmental protection must be and always remain a top priority. We support the change over to renewable energy resources for our Federal and State governments, this includes their facilities and vehicles. The U.S. Federal government is our largest national polluter and so we should start there. State governments should also quickly be transformed. While hybrids are more expensive than non-hybrids, most government vehicles are larger, more costly, fuel- inefficient models. Compared to these larger, more expensive models hybrids would be cheaper or at least comparable in price. Yet, the long term fuel savings in money and emissions make these fuel efficient hybrid vehicles the clear choice. American auto makers in Detroit need to step up to the plate in regards to manufacturing hybrid vehicles. Nearly 100 years ago the Ford Model T achieved roughly 24 miles to the gallon. Here we are 100 years later in the age of technology and our vehicles are doing no better in regards to miles per gallon used. America must act immediately to embrace the many economically and environmentally sustainable proposals available. Cleaning up America and enforcing environmental laws can be costly at times. However, time and time again we have seen that it is much less costly to prevent environmental problems before they occur, then after they occur. *The NAIP has endorsed the Pickens Plan. NAIP supports these actions: • The U.S. Federal government is our largest national polluter and so we should start there. State governments should also quickly be transformed to hybrid vehicles. • Airline emissions constitute a large percentage on our overall emissions. We support greatly reducing the amount of passenger and freight flights that cover short distances. For instance, flights traveling from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Philadelphia to New York, New York to Boston, Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, Los Angeles to San Diego and such could be largely eliminated and replaced by high speed rail. Aircraft emissions could be greatly reduced while the travel times involved would see little difference. Some government subsidies would shift to the railroad industry and this would reduce the amount and frequency of massive government bailouts to the airline industry. Our new high speed rail system could run on renewable energy and create thousands of new jobs. • While hybrids are more expensive than non-hybrids, most government vehicles are larger, more costly, fuel-inefficient models. Compared to these larger, more expensive models hybrids would be cheaper or at least comparable in price. Yet, the long term fuel savings in money and emissions make these fuel efficient. So, where was our cash for clunkers program for the government? • Government (at all levels) should have salary budgets reduced if they do not meet year over year energy reduction goals. • Businesses and households must show year over year energy and sustainability improvements to qualify for standard tax deductions (not new deductions just to maintain existing ones). • Neighborhoods and businesses should be organized into Energy Reduction Neighborhoods (ERN) to work together to implement cost saving and energy reduction activities. ERNs should compete for prizes for year over year accomplishments. Environment There is nothing radical with wanting our children to have safe drinking water, clean air to breath, numerous parks and natural areas to enjoy, litter & trash free hillsides to walk on and clean sparkling rivers and shorelines to swim in. America's identity was realized through our amazing natural environment that set us apart from Europe. America's environment is America's heritage. Unfortunately, America faces many environmental challenges now and in the future. We must work to implement sustainable energy & environmental policies for America. We must utilize renewable energy resources, enact conservation measures, reduce emissions and encourage organic farming. These measures would not hinder our economy as some often claim. Instead, the transfer to renewable energy resources would usher in a new economy that would create many hundreds of thousands of new jobs. We believe that the use of genetically modified food is not in the best interest of America. Today our food is full of growth hormones, which we believe may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in America and behavioral changes in us, including making our children physically maturing sooner. Our environmental challenges is directly related to our swelling population and consumption levels. Large corporations must not be allowed to disregard their effects on the environment, nor either should the government (who has been the largest contributor of pollution). We must implement the switch to renewable energy resources in government funded facilities and vehicles. Fix Social Security Current Situation: Social security has been a very useful and successful program. It has benefited many Americans, in particular (but not only) seniors. Privatizing Social Security would not solve the funding issues that Social Security faces. Social Security is an insurance policy, not an investment policy. The problems with Social Security have been caused by the U.S. Government spending Social Security trust funds. If those funds had not been touched Social Security would be fully funded for the foreseeable future. NAIP Position: We are not fundamentally opposed to private accounts. Indeed, private accounts could possibly benefit many Americans. However, any establishment of private accounts should be outside of and independent of social security. We are strongly opposed to borrowing more money from China, which is who we would be borrowing the money from to pay for the initial shortfall caused by the privatization of Social Security. NAIP supports these actions: • Educate all citizens that Social Security is only a base for retirement savings and must be as close to zero risk as possible. • Federal officials should be scored and measured on the solvency of Social Security. Each elected federal official has fiduciary responsibility for adequately funding social security. Hence their salaries should be reduced if Social Security is not in good health. Health Care While some have said that Social Security is in crisis, our health care system is in worse shape. It is one of the most inefficient programs ever. We can insure every American for much less than we are paying now. While we can certainly improve the quality of our health care, the primary problem with our health care system is in the areas of access and cost. We need to get a handle on skyrocketing health care costs. We have the highest health care costs in the world (as a nation and as individuals). Our current system is fiscally unsustainable and too many Americans do not have health care coverage that want it. And those that do have coverage are paying far to much for it. For those citizens that do not have Health care and do not want it, they should not be forced to buy a Health care plan. We need to breakup the cozy financial relationship between Drug companies, doctors, the FDA and medical researchers. Medical researchers are being funded by drug companies to develop new drugs and determine if their drugs are safe. This relationship makes it difficult for doctors to reach objective findings. Drug companies flood doctors offices and hospitals with funding & tons of free samples in exchange for recommending those drugs for their patients. Thus, the American people are being over prescribed and over medicated. The American people can't watch a single television show without seeing several drug commercials telling them to tell their doctor to give them that drug. That is not in the best interest of the patient. Plus, the drugs that are being advertised all over the TV and radio tend to be more expensive drugs. Our nations faces a shortage of doctors. The current health care debate is ignoring this fact. If universal health care is passed, the problem will get only worse. Thus, the doctor shortage should be addressed first. The NAIP encourages more doctors to return to making house calls. The NAIP supports encouraging citizens to practice preventative medicine and pursue healthy lifestyles. We must return recess and gym class to our K -12 schools. Less than 10% of the elementary schools in our cities still hold recess and a similar percentage no longer offers gym classes. The NAIP opposes free heath care for illegal foreign nationals. We support issuing all Military Veterans a "Hero's Card" allowing them access to complete FREE Medical coverage at the doctor or Hospital of their choice. The "Hero's Card" benefit would extend to the eligible family of both Military Retirees and Veterans whom have lost their life on active duty. More will be added to our Health care platform soon! Education Current Situation: Education is the key to the survival of our great nation. The government relies too much on standardized test scores. Standardized test scores are very limited and they restrict many students access to higher education. Schools teaching the 'standardized test' curriculum woefully under prepares our children for the real world. Also, the federal "No child Left Behind" program forces states to comply with many government mandates while making the individual state foot the bill. This illegal burden is breaking state budgets, while the children truly are being left behind. Children who drop out of school or skip the test are not factored into the schools performance. Thus by eliminating the drop outs or those in jail it appears that test scores are going up. These dishonest practices were born out of the states' desperate attempts to meet the federal mandates. Meeting the federal mandates in "No child Left behind" is required in order to gain federal education dollars. Tuition higher education has skyrocketed and we need to make higher and continuing education affordable for all Americans. Many private high schools across the country have outrageous tuition costs. Many have tuition costs between $5,000 and $35,000 dollars a year! Paying a few hundred dollars in vouchers won't give Americans more choice or help most Americans afford private schools. In the end it will only help the wealthy families who can already afford private tuition. NAIP Position: The New American Independent party will not turn its back on America's public schools. We support fully funding education in America. Every child should have equal access to educational opportunities. Every child of every race, of every income, in every geographic region should have access to a rich learning environment in safe schools, with qualified teachers. Every classroom must be equipped with newer technology and every student engaged in civic learning in order for America to stay competitive in the world. We do not support private school vouchers in their current proposed form. In addition to elementary and secondary education being a top priority for the New American Independent Party, we also strongly support higher education, adult and continuing education programs. We do not support affirmative action programs in the admittance of students to our college and universities. While these programs might have been well intentioned, we feel they are unfair, unequal, and they don't correct the root problems or make things 'right'. NAIP supports the following actions: • The now endangered Physical education and history curriculum's should be restored. • We encourage broader access for American high school and college students who wish to study abroad. We strongly encourage cultural exchange which fosters international understanding and cooperation. Cultural exchange and study abroad experiences gives American students a richer and deeper understanding of the world and our place in it, while also giving international students the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of America. • Ending illegal immigration into America would reduce education costs and reduce class size all across the country. • Educational emphasis should be on the early years to assure every child develops the best possible base and habits for learning. This could be viewed as educational wellness. • If a child lacks proper behavior and is disruptive (deprives the other children), there should be focused additional behavioral classes charged base on ability to pay. These requirements need to be financially painful to motivate parents. • Excellent and good teachers should be rewarded based on results (individual goals and student results). Does a tenured teacher provide $40,000 a year more of educational value to the students then a new teacher? Both should be rewarded by accomplishments each year. • High schools should be measured against percentage graduation and placements into next step programs (college, military, City Year, apprenticeship programs..) • Develop more aggressive apprentice/training programs for core job skills. • The following additional educational requirements should be part of all education: - All 8th graders should be required to calculate the total costs of their education in terms of tangible equivalents (cell phones, video games, teacher or principal salaries…) - Have a tractor trailer show up at the schools so they can see the physical size of the equivalents. - Students should understand the basics of how local, state and federal governments are measured for performance. - Understanding individual responsibility for the evaluation of candidates and focusing on factual information and filtering out persuasive marketing messages. - Require basic personal finance education to include retirement planning and home ownership. - Health care responsibilities, what they must do to evaluate health care options and to find the best health care match. Federal Reserve The NAIP supports a full and complete audit of the federal reserve. Currently, the federal reserve operates with no transparency and no accountability. Budget deficit & wasteful spending Current Situation: Our National Debt is a crisis. It needs an absolute National focus and commitment to reduce it to levels where it is no longer detrimental to our economy and future stability. The corporate influence that owns the Democratic and Republican parties has led to massive amounts of wasteful spending at local, state and national level. Generous campaign contributions from corporations are paid back by the politician in the form of wasteful spending bills or favorable legislation. NAIP Position: Fiscal responsibility is a cornerstone issue for the New American Independent Party. The nation's budget deficit must be dealt with immediately. We support state and federal balanced budget amendments that must be followed, with only slight "wiggle room" in case of emergencies or war time events. We fully support a fiscally responsible government that should always strive for efficiency. That doesn't mean cutting corners in important programs, but it does mean eliminating wasteful spending and overlapping resources. NAIP supports these actions: • Create a cabinet level position, Secretary of Debt so that the burden of our national debt is a priority of our federal government - Aggressively communicate the national debt in terms of each individual, family town, state, etc.. • Accelerated liquidation of all assets acquired from the bailout. All funds must go to directly paying of our dept and not to other spending • Comprehensive reporting on the effectiveness of the bailout and stimulus spending to help prevent similar wasteful spending in the future • Federal elected salaries should be bonus based, directly tied to a balanced budget and surplus achieved each year. - Fines for corruption, fraud or mismanagement of government contracts and assets confiscated from criminals can be used to offset the budget. This should motivate government to more proactively discourage these behaviors. • Focused program to liquidate national assets to relieve the debt. This is not preservation lands and drilling rights, but from assets no longer required from consolidation and efficiencies. Such as reducing the number of post offices and selling the real-estate. • No operational losses from any government function will be accepted. Examples would be to close Post offices, eliminate Saturday and other days for mail pick up and drop off. Corporate special interests We must put an end to the corporate special interests. The two major parties have put the interests of the huge national/global corporations before the interests of the American people. It is often difficult for ordinary American citizens to gain access to their federal and state lawmakers, while corporate lobbyists often have an open door to your lawmakers with campaign contributions in hand. Corporate crooks should be punished, not the honest employees of those companies. All looted money must be replayed back to the workers, investors, pension holders and consumers. Agriculture Current Situation: For the first time in our nation's history, we are beginning to import more of our food than we export. This is a disturbing and hazardous trend that we must immediately end and reverse. We also continue to see a growing trend of a concentration of wealth by agribusiness, biotech, chemical, and financial corporations over our nation's vital fiber and food economy. Our nation's heritage of family farms are being choked into extinction. We must pro actively work to save our nation's family farms and end our increasing dependence on foreign agriculture and domestic corporate interests. Low prices and lack of market access due to corporate mergers and acquisitions by big agribusinesses is destroying the ability of family farmers to compete. Our soil and technology give us a natural advantage for growing food and we are not maximizing a massive economic competitive advantage for our nation. Our government is also failing to provide research funding and also failing to get other vital information out to the public. This information is vital to independent food producers, organic farmers and cooperatives. Access to such information can open up new and competitive markets, promoting new food infrastructures, creating communities, promoting sustainable agriculture practices, while preventing pollution and the degradation of our nation's natural resources. NAIP Position: We see a return to American Agriculture self-reliance with exports far exceeding imports. As long as there are people on earth who can pay for food or charities who can support them, then America should be growing food to meet that demand. There should be sufficient agriculture so that crops for food has no negative impact on our cost of food or feed. The NAIP seeks a return to American Agricultural self-reliance. The NAIP supports organic agriculture. The NAIP supports the legalization of the farming of Industrial hemp. NAIP supports the following actions: • No more paying farmers not to grow food • Tax incentives should be used to reclaim land for agriculture • The government should not be preventing industrial hemp if this crop can be abundant and profitable for US Agriculture. Legal & Illegal Immigration America is a nation of immigrants. Our rich history is the history of immigrants coming to America to find a better life for themselves and their families. This diverse mix of people has made America what it is today. America has truly been a melting pot and we should recognize our amazing history. This diverse blend of people that makes up America has created America's unique spirit. And we join in recognizing and celebrating the contributions of all peoples who have had a hand in making America great. Thus, we have no desire to have a boring society of faceless clones with no unique characteristics or features. We have no problem with immigrants who have come here legally. America and the rest of the world is facing one of greatest challenges we have ever faced. This is the challenge of Globalization. America must remember it's past and it's traditions, but America must also be flexible enough to adapt to today's situations and challenges if America is to last. Old ways, including old immigration policies must be reformed in order to face today's unique challenges. The sterile inflexible tree will be snapped by the wind, while the flexible tree will bend and sway, but not break. Our elected officials in Washington, continue to stubbornly cling to the sterile, inflexible old ways of thinking toward our immigration policies, while ignoring the current problems that this old thinking is creating. Old policies are for old times. We need new policies for a new age. America desperately needs to address our current illegal immigration problem. The current amount of Illegal foreign nationals coming across our borders is environmentally and economically unsustainable. Again, America faces economic, environmental, overpopulation, health care and terrorism threats to name just a few. Our current Illegal Immigration laws should be enforced, instead of the current "let them all in" thinking toward illegal immigration that prevails in Washington D.C.. The vast majority of our current politicians have ignored our illegal immigration laws. Illegal immigrants should be treated humanely and with care, however, we must work to end the incentives that entice illegal immigrants into coming here. And we must create incentives for immigrants to engage in the legal process of attaining U.S. Citizenship. We should work to prevent illegal immigrants from entering our country by securing our borders. Not only would securing our borders help in controlling our growing population problems and all of the adverse effects associated with it, but securing our borders is also vital to our national security. We do not blame immigrants for trying to enter our country. Life in the United States offers many of them much better pay, a better life for their children and potentially many other added benefits. And again, we have no problem with legal immigrants who are here in our country. We have nothing against people of different ethnic heritages and we are against racism in any form. However, in regards to illegal immigrants, they must play by the rules if they are to be accepted into our country. Our government has the duty to secure our borders from terrorists and the population escalation. Our country cannot continue to bear the extra burden of increased population, consumption, pollution, health care costs and job loss. The New American Independent party is dedicated to protecting American jobs from being lost to foreign workers. It doesn't matter if that means saving our jobs from foreign workers in other lands (outsourcing) or on our own soil (illegal immigration). The lack of consistency on the issues of outsourcing and illegal immigration by the Democratic and Republican parties is mind boggling. The incentive that the illegal immigrants have for entering our country should be addressed and removed. Hence, employers who knowingly hire Illegal Immigrants should be severely punished under the law. Businesses caught hiring illegal foreign nationals should be fined and repeated violations should result in the loss of their business license. Eliminating the incentives are the only way we will ever get a handle on the illegal immigration problem in America. We do not call for deporting illegal immigrants. Instead, by enforcing the law against employers many illegal workers will return to their homelands or look for opportunities elsewhere. The massive numbers of foreign nationals flooding into the United States has began creating an America that is much more like a mixed salad instead of a melting pot. Due to the current massive amounts of legal and illegal immigrants coming into America, we are now seeing large groups (separate ingredients in our salad) of people who are not fully blending together with the population. This will create challenges for America as we move forward. All across the nation ESL (English as a second language) classes quickly fill up and people are often turned away. We call for greater funding of ESL programs that would create more ESL classes and teachers. This would create greater assimilation by new immigrants and give them a better future. How many good jobs are available in the United States without knowledge of English? Our Legal Immigration policy should be a sustainable one that is more closely linked to the current times and conditions in our nation, and also always includes an eye toward the future. Our policy should be flexible, in that it should be tied to the current population totals, future population trends, environmental threats, unemployment rates (a more accurate unemployment calculation is needed) and other economic conditions. Those legal immigrants that we do admit should be encouraged to assimilate or melt into the population. Currently, America's population is swelling, we face great environmental risks, and our unemployment rate is too high. Also, Employers and the American government must more tightly monitor and enforce our visa fraud laws. Also, the current amount of legal work visa's issued should be reduced. America has and will always need teaching positions, such as teaching Chinese language, African environmental history, Jewish philosophy or Japanese politics in our Colleges and Universities that would often be best filled by natives from those countries. If no legal American citizens born in those countries can be found, then work visa applications can be accepted. However, in regards to most of the rest of America's jobs; America has million of unemployed workers who can fill those slots. Employers are not making a good faith effort to find American citizens to fill their open positions. We propose that employers who have open positions and claim they can't find applicants to fill these positions, must report those openings to state welfare and unemployment offices. These open positions can then be matched up with able American workers. Veterans Benefits The New American Independent party believes we should always support our Troops and our Veterans. Our nation's veterans have put their lives on the line and sacrificed so much for our great nation. The very least we can do is honor them and make sure they receive the thanks and the respect that they deserve. We support: Issuing all Military Veterans a "Hero's Card" allowing them access to complete FREE Medical coverage at the doctor or Hospital of their choice. The "Hero's Card" benefit would extend to the eligible family of both Military Retirees and Veterans whom have lost their life on active duty. Providing for the families of active duty personnel who lose their life while on active duty a stipend of $500 a month to a spouse without children for two years. Spouses with Children would receive the previously described $500 benefit plus an additional $100 per month for two years for children under the age of 18 years. This benefit would include all active duty personnel both in and out of conflict in any location throughout the world. Making Military Retirement pay totally tax exempt. Completing all Veteran claims in a timely and accurate manner. Providing Veterans with up to $12,000 a year or a total of $48,000 (lifetime) in college or technical/ trade school tuition benefits. Proceed to Issues II page>>>>>> |
NEW AMERICAN INDEPENDENT PARTY Platform Issues I The 'Bread and Butter' Issues |
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